INMATE NUMBERS DRIVE UP COSTS

Epps Can't Control Prison Population; Legislature Can

For all his efforts to trim the corrections budget, there is one
factor over which Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps has
no control: the inmate population.

Epps is asking lawmakers for a 10 percent budget increase, or $27
million, to keep up with the projected prison population growth. There
are more than 21,000 inmates presently behind bars, and nearly 25,000
others on house arrest. The Department of Corrections is anticipating
its inmate population to increase by 900 next year.

Epps can only deal with that increase. He can't reduce
it.

The Legislature can. It can further relax the misguided
truth-in-sentencing law, which requires most inmates to serve 85
percent of their sentences before becoming eligible for release. It
can set more uniform sentencing guidelines. It can continue stressing
less costly alternatives to incarceration, such as house arrest or
drug courts.

Mississippi not only puts more of its population behind bars than most
other states. It keeps them there 20 percent longer.

There's a price to such a corrections policy. It's a heavy
one.